


The Six Swans

by SeeMaree



Category: Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms, Grimm's Fairy Tales, Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-12
Updated: 2015-02-12
Packaged: 2018-03-12 02:23:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3340055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeeMaree/pseuds/SeeMaree
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Katniss has run, hidden, changed her name, it's the only way she can protect her family and stay alive.  No one from her old life is ever supposed to find her.  But then she bumps into Peeta Mellark.<br/>An Everlark retelling of the Grimm's fairy tale The Six Swans.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Six Swans

Katniss perches at the top of the tree shivering and shaking, cursing her stupid pizza delivery job that brings her into this neighborhood late at night. The drunken frat boys had caught sight of her and chased her like a pack of feral dogs, and she, like the half wild child she had once been, had followed her instincts and climbed the nearest tree.

None of them seemed capable of following her up in their inebriated condition, but she was trapped. To add to the unpleasantness of the situation she had torn her shirt climbing, so now she’s being subjected to catcalls and demands to “take it all off baby”. She begins pelting them with pine cones instead.

She hears a new voice telling them that “it’s not worth it,” that he is “bored” and is it really worth wasting time on an “ugly, skinny thing like that.” 

After they finally, finally move on, she waits a while, just to be sure, and then starts to cautiously make her way down.

“Are you okay?” the same voice says from behind her as her feet hit the ground. She’s embarrassed that she lets out a small scream. He backs away with his hands in the air.

“Hey, it’s okay, I don’t want to hurt you.” There’s something familiar about him, and then he turns his head and the light from the lamp post falls across his face. Oh no. Peeta Mellark. 

“Katniss?” he gasps. Hell no. She turns her back quickly. 

“I don’t know who that is,” she mutters. But it’s too late. 

“Katniss” he says again. This time it’s a plea. “Please, don’t do this. You disappeared overnight, I thought you were dead, please, please, just, look at me.”

Reluctantly she turns back toward him. His eyes widen, and his hands go to his hair.

“Katniss, what happened? What’s going on? Why are you delivering pizza?” His voice is so incredulous she almost laughs. Almost. But it’s true. She grew up to wealth. Incredible wealth. Seeing her in a Pizza Shak uniform is probably almost as much of a surprise to him as seeing her at all.

Katniss doesn’t know what to do. This wasn’t supposed to happen. What is he doing attending an obscure college in a nowhere town? This place was supposed to be as far away from anyone she ever knew as possible.

Impulsively, she grabs his hand and tows him toward her beat up Honda. “Come with me.”

 

Katniss hadn’t intended for her life to turn out this way. Four years ago, she’d been living a life of privilege, trying, and failing to fit in at an exclusive school, dealing with her crazy cousins, her mentally ill mother, irresponsible aunt and needy little sister. Escaping to the woods that backed onto their estate every chance she got. She had thought she had problems. 

On her eighteenth birthday the trustees sat her down to review her father’s estate. It had been his far sighted plan for her, in the event of his untimely death, to be mentored by the trustees, and eventually, six years later, when she turned twenty four, (allowing her time to attend college and gain a postgraduate degree if she wanted) to assume full control over the family’s extensive holdings.

The law firm of Snow, Crane, and Heavensbee had represented her family for as long as Katniss could remember. Lucky, lucky, girl that she was, she got all three of the named partners sitting across from her. The other trustees were apparently unimportant, although her dad’s old friend Haymitch was sitting off to the side.

They explained, in painfully simplistic terms, what they did, and what she was going to learn. Supposedly. Like she really didn’t need to. Because it was probably boring, and too hard for her. They treated her like an idiot. Perhaps they were used to their client’s daughters being vapid society girls, unable to hold more than the address of the next party in their heads. They didn’t know how her father raised her. 

When other dads had been shooing their children out so they could work, her father had been sitting her on his lap and teaching her about the stock market, investing, maximizing worker safety without reducing profitability, and the charitable obligations of people in their position. 

Maybe it was why she had never fit in at the exclusive private school that cost so much for her to attend. She understood what it meant to be wealthy. The other kids just knew how it was to have lots of money.

Something seemed off with the lawyers that day. Her family’s net worth was much lower than it should’ve been. Yes there was enough money for her family to live in the lap of luxury for the rest of their lives, but still. Where had all the money gone? Mr. Crane had waffled a bit about the economic downturn and how it was all explained, and when he waved a bundle of papers in her face she grabbed them and started reading. She didn’t notice the shocked silence. Or the poisonous look Mr Snow directed toward her. 

She had surfaced to the feel of Haymitch’s touch on her shoulder. He had made some excuses and led her away.

As soon as they were outside the building he told her, “You need to go home, don’t do anything different than normal. I’ll contact you soon.” It was really weird. On top of a day of weirdness. But she trusted Haymitch. He was like family. Over the years as her mother had entered various treatment facilities, and her aunt had danced off to Europe to party, Haymitch had acted as their temporary guardian. He did his best to fill in for her father. So she did what he told her. But she kept those papers and finished reading them.

Two days later she was startled to find Haymitch lurking in the woods. He tended to drop by the house quite often. The fact that he felt a need for secrecy was almost as unnerving as the the things he told her. Shocking things. Things she had already figured out, but didn’t want to be true.

Snow and Crane were stealing her money. They had been quietly siphoning it off since her father’s death six years before. When Katniss had demanded that Haymitch do something, he’d laughed cynically and told her that people who get in the way of Coriolanus Snow die mysteriously. 

Haymitch told her to keep her head down and her mouth shut, for the next six years until she got control. That he was keeping tabs on where the money went, apparently the lawyers saw Haymitch as a washed up drunk, (he was kind of), so they were a lot less cautious around him than they should be. He was confident that they would be able to recover most of the money. If they were smart, and extremely careful. It was a lot to ask. Katniss wasn’t sure she can conceal her disdain for six weeks, let alone six years. 

But it didn’t matter. They weren’t careful enough, or perhaps she had just seemed too hard to control. A week later Mr. Crane had called Katniss and asked her to a meeting on board his yacht. It struck her as a little odd, but her father had often conducted business meetings in places like that, so she went. 

As soon as she stepped on board she had a bad feeling about the situation. There were no crew that she could see, just Katniss and Mr. Crane, who seemed jittery.

And then he announced they were going to head out to sea for a few hours, and pulled away from the dock before she could protest. Katniss, her sister, and her cousins, as some of the richest children in the country, had been drilled on kidnapping scenarios. Particular attention had been paid to avoiding getting kidnapped in the first place. Katniss’ father had particularly stressed that if a situation ever felt wrong, to not be embarrassed to leave. 

So that was what Katniss did. She asked Mr. Crane for directions to the bathroom and then she slipped into the water and started swimming. She had always been a strong swimmer, and the yacht wasn’t very far from shore. She had been worrying about making it back to the dock before he noticed she was missing when the yacht exploded. They hadn’t been trying to kidnap her. Snow had tried to kill her, he had killed his own partner in the attempt. The man was completely ruthless.

Katniss was glad that she had shoved the burner phone Haymitch had given her into the glove box of her car instead of her bag. She had zipped her keys into her inside pocket before she swam away from the yacht.

There was only one number programmed into the phone. It was when she heard Haymitch’s voice that she started to cry. She told him she was going to run, let people believe she had died on the yacht, that it would be best for everyone. He told her to stop being so impulsive.

Haymitch explained some harsh truths. First and foremost, if she died, or was declared dead, then all restraint on Snow was gone. He would have free reign over all of the money for a least the next four years, or even forever if Prim could be easily led. Haymitch convinced her to stay on the dock to give interviews when the media arrived. To publicly prove that she wasn’t on that yacht when it blew. 

When she got home hours later, she found six finely carved wooden swans laid across her bed. Four carved from dark walnut, and two from blonde maple. They had initially confused her, perhaps they were a gift from her sister, or one of her little cousins? She didn’t stay confused for long. Her cousin Gale called, from the hospital. Katniss’ entire family had been attacked outside a movie theater. No one had been seriously injured except little Posy. Her left arm was broken in five places. When Katniss examined the smallest black figurine she saw that the left wing was broken off.

Four black swans, her four black haired cousins, and two white, her mother and sister. Snow had changed his tactics. He was no longer trying to kill her, instead he was threatening the lives of her family.

Initially Katniss hadn’t know what to do except comply. She went through the motions of her daily life, going to school and spending time with her family. It was fortunate that she had no close friends, and her family was preoccupied with Posy, but she felt so alone.

Then Haymitch had texted her with a message to meet him in the woods. He had found a loophole. She had hugged him in relief, until she found out what was required. She had to disappear for six years, until she was twenty four and could take full control of her inheritance.

He had discovered that while her death would lead to Snow gaining more control over the estate, her disappearance would activate a clause freezing the accounts, until she returned or was declared dead. Her family would still be allowed to live in the properties owned by the trust, and have money to live on, but nothing could be bought or sold, which would mean that Snow wouldn’t be able to embezzle any more money. And even if everyone believed she was dead, without a body they wouldn’t be able to regain control for seven years.

Haymitch was confident that Snow wouldn’t be able to retaliate against her family because her disappearing, put together with the other attacks would gain too much scrutiny from the authorities.  
With a heavy heart, Katniss agreed.

She had decided that the only person she was going to tell was her cousin Gale. With her gone, he would have to take care of both families. He was incredulous, certain she was suffering from some sort of delusion. “Prestigious law firms don’t go round trying to kill people Katniss,” he’d said. Then, when in frustration she had called in Haymitch to corroborate her story he had ridiculed her for thinking she could make it on her own for six years.

When Gale had said, “You know you there are no trust funds when you’re living under a false identity,” and smirked at her, she wanted to slap him. He’d never lived outside the lap of luxury either. Where did he get off being so smug and superior? Haymitch had beaten her to it, shoving him out the door and telling him to just go back to his fantasy life and keep his mouth shut, let them deal with reality.

The insulted look on his face had been gratifying. She knew Gale had never gotten over the news that she was the one left in charge of the entire family’s fortunes. He had assumed that as the oldest, and as a boy, that her father would choose him. Even though he’d always been too busy with his social life to sit and learn how to manage money, the way Katniss had. 

Katniss had spent a few nervous weeks gathering as much money as she could, discreetly. Haymitch had gotten her a set of false documents that he swore were clean and invisible. Katniss had been frightened by what her future held. But she knew she had to leave now. She was gathering the few things that she wanted to take with her when Peeta Mellark showed up.

They weren’t exactly friends, but he hung around a lot, he was one of the few people at her school that she didn’t hate. He was a good person, kind. When he asked if she was okay she had burst into tears. She was instantly wrapped in his arms and she felt safe, for the first time since the day she turned eighteen. But when he has whispered, “whatever it is, I want to help,” she had pushed him away. He couldn’t help. No one could do this but Katniss herself. So she had left, driving to the parking lot at the head of a hiking trail where she abandoned her BMW and disappeared in the ten year old Honda Civic that she had paid cash for the week before.

She had seen Peeta interviewed on TV weeks later. He was the one crying this time. He believed that she had killed herself, thrown herself off the waterfall that was at the end of that hiking trail. And he blamed himself. He felt he should have paid more attention to how withdrawn she had been those last few weeks, he knew he should have stopped her from leaving that day, made her talk about whatever was wrong.

Of all the people in her old life he, more than even her mother and sister, Peeta was the one she wanted to call, just to tell him she was alive. 

And now he was sitting next to her, in her beat up old car, looking at her with those same devastated eyes.

She takes him to her shabby studio apartment. He looks around. Katniss knows what he sees, a collection of garage sale furniture and thrift store finds, jammed into a space barely big enough for a bed and a table. At least she washed the dishes this morning. His eyes are drawn to the six swans that are lined up across the table. Of course. Peeta always did have an eye for beauty.

“So are you going to talk to me, or did you bring me here just to stare?” he says, still focused on the swans.

Katniss doesn’t know why she brought him here. It was an impulse. She thought she had cured herself of impulsive behavior years ago, but he brought it all back.

“I never forgave myself you know,” he continues, turning the larger white swan in his hands. “I had so many ‘if onlys’. I thought of so many things I should have said and done, ways I could have helped you. I’ve spent years of regret on you.”

“I’m sorry,” she says. It’s inadequate. He turns to glare at her.

“I don’t want an apology, I want an explanation,” he snaps. She looks at him, considering. At this point leaving him without answers would be more dangerous than telling him. All it would take is one Facebook update, one phone call, and everything she’s endured for the last four years would be wasted.

So she tells him. All of it. Somewhere along the line his anger evaporates and by the end of it, she’s in her safe place. Wrapped up in his arms. Katniss has never really liked people touching her, but hugs from Peeta have their own own category.

“Old Snow has a twisted sense of humor,” he comments after a while.

“What do you mean?” She asks tiredly leaning her head against his chest. Telling her story has exhausted her. Peeta gestures toward the wooden swans.

“The swans, the blackmail, even the six years of exile. It’s like the old fairytale, isn’t it?” Katniss gives him a confused look. She has no idea what he’s talking about. “The story of the swans. You know, we studied Grimm’s Fairy Tales in school.” Katniss had paid as little attention as possible to literature class. She had been focused on economics, math, and legal studies.  
Katniss lays back onto her bed and looks at him. 

“Tell me the story,” she says. She remembers that Peeta always told the best stories.

Peeta hesitates and then lays down, leaving a safe distance between them. 

“Once upon a time…” and Katniss giggles. Giggles. Like she’s happy, carefree. When was the last time she giggled? She can’t remember. 

“Are you serious? I meant the basic outline, not the whole fairytale deal.” Peeta looks over at her.

“If you want to hear the story, you just have to appreciate the way I tell it. Okay?” She huffs at him but doesn’t argue. She’s wants to hear his story, and laying here next to him feels good.

“Once upon a time, there was a wise King with seven children. Well maybe he wasn’t really that wise. Because he went hunting and forgot the buddy system and wandered off all alone, also the woods were probably enchanted or something, because he got completely lost and the only person who could help him find his way out was a witch.”

“Sounds more like cursed.”

“No commentary please. Now as I was saying, the only person who knew the way out was a witch. Of course she didn’t help for free. She wanted him to marry her daughter. Which was okay with the King, because, hey, she was really pretty. But he was a bit concerned about his seven children, because you know, witches daughter and all, and those seven kids were standing in the way of any of her children inheriting the throne. So he hid them.”

“I guess he was wise sometimes then.” Katniss bites the inside of her cheek to stop herself from grinning at the annoyed look Peeta gives her.

“Do you want to hear this story, or make snarky comments?” Now she can’t control her smirk.

“Both.” He rolls his eyes, but she can see he’s trying not to smile. She remembers this about him, this sly playfulness. It feels like home.

“Fine. Anyway, he wasn’t that wise, because his wife found out where the kids where hidden and turned the six boys into swans, leaving the girl all alone.”

“Why didn’t she change the girl?” Peeta gives a weird lying down shrug.

“I don’t know. Perhaps she thought that the girl wasn’t a threat?”

“You would think a witch would know better than to dismiss the problems a woman can cause.” Now Peeta does grin. 

“I know right? So the princess meets up with her brothers, who are conveniently able to change into humans for fifteen minutes each day and they tell her that to keep them human she has to go six years without speaking, and knit them sweaters from stinging nettles. But they tell her not to bother to try because it’s way too hard for her to accomplish.” 

“Says the idiots who got themselves turned into swans.” Peeta’s right, this story is creepily familiar. He presses on, paying no attention to her comments.

“She decides to give it a try anyway, and a for a few years, things go fine, she keeps her mouth shut and knits. But then some huntsmen find her in the woods, and she climbs a tree to get away from them, but they won’t leave her alone, so she decides to take off her clothes and throw them down until the men get bored and go away. For some reason, stripping has the opposite effect on the men, and they won’t leave her alone. But a King, not her dad, different King, comes along and tells them to get lost and then takes her home to his castle and marries her.”

“You totally made that up,” Katniss protests. “You put what happened tonight in the story and made yourself a King.” Peeta rolls toward her, and gives her an odd three fingered salute.

“It was in the original, scouts honor.” 

“You were never a boy scout.” How does she know that? “And that’s not even their salute!” 

“Continuing. They get married, and of course have lots of great sex, and that leads to a baby, which his crazy mother steals, and claims the princess, well I guess she’s a queen now, ate the baby.”

“For real.” Katniss protests disbelievingly. Peeta nods. “This story is reminding me why I never wasted time on Literature.”

“Well to cut a long story short, and do not say ‘too late,’ because our heroine is still bound by silence and can’t defend herself, the King is convinced that his wife is a filicidal cannibal. She’s about to be executed, but luckily right then is when her six years are up so her brothers show up and she turns them back into men.” 

“What happened to the baby?” Peeta smiles and pushes the hair back from her face. Huh. When did she undo her braid?

“Oh, her swan brothers found it dumped in the woods and took care of it.”

Katniss flops onto her back and stares at the water stained ceiling for a while.

“I see what you’re saying. Snow is one creepy bastard, and he was definitely referencing that story when he left me those swans.”

She feels Peeta moving closer. “But he made a mistake,” he whispers, his breath warm against her ear. “He forgot that the Princess did endure the six years of silence, and in the end she wins.” When she turns toward him he’s right there, so close that if she tilted her head just a little they’d be kissing.

She rolls away, turning her back to him. She’s so exhausted, and it feels so safe and so familiar having him here that she’s dozing off when Peeta asks “Katniss? Am I… I guess I’m staying? I mean I’m not complaining, but you know, you drove, and I don’t exactly…”

“You can stay,” she says and slips into sleep. 

 

For the past four years Katniss has avoided getting close to anyone. She’s been politely friendly at different jobs, even gone out for drinks with the group, and helped new employees learn the ropes. But she’s never let anyone get close. How can she build any kind of friendship when everything she tells them, starting with her name, is a lie? Perhaps that’s why it’s so easy to let Peeta in. She can be herself.

Early on he decides to stop calling her Katniss, even in private, because it would be too easy to slip in public. She’s grown used to being Katherine Sampson anyway. Hearing “Katniss” fall from his lips is unnecessarily painful. He starts calling her Kat, which is close enough to her real name to satisfy him, but close enough to her alias that it’s an acceptable nickname. 

He coaxes her into socializing with his friends, who are too preoccupied with their own lives to question why a rich golden boy is wasting his time on a pizza delivery girl. Katniss wonders though. She sees how women look at him, he could have any of them. But he seems content to spend all his free time with her, as a friend. He never acts like he wants anything more, and Katniss is grateful. She’s too selfish to give him up, but she can’t offer him more. Not like this. Maybe ever. All the losses and betrayals that she’s experienced seem to have burned that desire out of her.

But he’s graduating. Going on with his life. She was fine for four years without anyone. Why is the thought of him leaving her to go on with his life without her so terrible? She’ll be okay. It’s just one year, ten months, and nineteen more days after all.

Still, it’s hard to bear as she sits on his bed and watches him pack up his dorm room. She pastes on a smile, but she’s a terrible actor, and he knows her too well. He comes to sit beside her, and instead of sitting close like he normally does, he leaves a space. He’s separating himself from her already. It shouldn’t hurt.

“I got you something,” he says finally, his hands fidgeting in his lap. She sighs. He’s going to make this emotional. He hands her a jeweler’s box. It has a ring inside. In shock she tries to give it back, but he backs away.

“Just hear me out. Please?” Katniss doesn’t want to. But his face is so pleading that she can’t deny him.

So he talks. Tells her about the teaching job he’s taken, in an isolated town in Oregon, how he can’t stand the thought of leaving her behind, so he inquired, but the housing they offer the teachers is for them and immediate family members only. She knows he has to live on his salary for the next few years until he comes into his trust at twenty five, and how excited he was to land this job, with all the perks they offered to get teachers to come to such an out of the way place.

“Let me get this straight. You want me to marry you so I can come to Oregon and live with you?” He nods emphatically. She shakes her head. It’s a terrible idea. What will his family think? What if he meets someone he wants to date? How can they fake a relationship? How will she find a job in such a tiny town? But he’s giving her that pleading look again. She agrees to think it over while he goes home, and to let him know at the end of the summer. But her answer will still be no. It has to be no. She can’t rely on anyone but herself. 

Katniss tries to be strong. But she is so miserably and pathetically lonely without him. It doesn’t help that he made her hold onto the ring. He told her that he designed it himself, and had his friend Johanna, the metalsmith, make it. Which had surprised her. Katniss had been so sure that there was something going on between them. Johanna had rolled her eyes and called her brainless when Katniss had implied as much, but it still seems odd that she would be willing to make a wedding ring for Peeta to give to another woman. 

The ring is simple, it probably only cost him a few hundred dollars, but Peeta knows her too well to give her something fussy. It’s a wide gold band with an intricate swirling design picked out with yellow and green sapphire chips. It spends far too much time on Katniss’ finger. When he calls her in August and asks again, she says yes. They are married at the courthouse a week later.

 

Married life is not as difficult to adjust to as Katniss had imagined. They are housed in a crumbling Victorian that has been divided into apartments. The other three tenants are also young teachers, and Peeta and Katniss, as the only couple, get the largest place. It’s still basically a one bedroom, but it has a tiny sun porch that Peeta sets up as his painting space. Sleeping in the same bed is a bit awkward at first, but it soon becomes comforting to snuggle up next to Peeta. Katniss finds a job as a hiking guide at a local resort that bills itself as a “retreat.” For the first time in four years, she’s happy. She should have known it couldn’t last.

It started out as a perfectly normal Friday night. Peeta had splurged and bought a bottle of wine and they watch one of the angsty romantic movies that he enjoys. But when they tuck themselves into bed, Katniss realizes that Peeta has no shirt on. The weather is cold and the Victorian isn’t well insulated, so they usually dress quite warmly for bed, but tonight, tonight Peeta’s bare chest is there for the touching. And she is. Touching him that is. She’s been curious, and tonight she has enough alcohol in her system to let herself follow through on it. Sliding her hands over the soft skin of his stomach and into the patches of hair on his chest. Running her thumbs over his odd man nipples. And then he’s kissing her, so aggressively, so passionately that she can’t think, can’t stop. Peeta wants her, desperately. And in that moment she wants him just as much. 

It was a mistake. Katniss knows it the moment she wakes. It was the result of proximity, loneliness, alcohol, all that stuff. But when he opens his eyes and smiles at her so dreamily she can’t tell him that. And then when he starts to talk, he tells her that he loves her, that he’s always loved her. How when he saw her again that first time, he swore to himself he’d never let her go again. And he looks so happy. So hopeful. 

She doesn’t tell him it was a mistake. All she says is to pick up a box of condoms if he ever wants to do that again, because she cannot get pregnant. He’s dressed and out the door with comical speed.  
They can’t keep their hands off each other after that. Katniss tells herself that she’s not doing anything wrong, she’s not using him. They’re married for goodness sake. It’s okay for married people to have sex. It’s practically required. And they use condoms every time after that first night. But apparently once (three times) is really all it takes. Because a few weeks later, she’s sitting on the toilet staring in shock at a pregnancy test. She took it when her period was a few days late, to set her mind at ease. She didn’t expect it to be positive.

Peeta is obnoxiously excited. He can’t wait to be a dad. Katniss is terrified. The baby will be born six months before her twenty fourth birthday. She starts to feel panicky every time she imagines going head to head with Snow and his lackeys with a damn baby on her hip. She can’t do this. All she’s done is create another person Snow can hurt to make her fall into line. If he was willing to break a six year old’s arm in five places what will he do to an infant? Her child, who will be relying on her to keep it safe and protect it’s future?

Katniss starts having nightmares about the baby. She’s always had extremely vivid dreams, but this is so much worse. She sees her child die in so many ways, and when Snow grows fangs and start to eat her baby, she wakes up screaming. Peeta tries to comfort her and she snaps at him.

“Stop trying to save me. I don’t need your help.” He pulls back looking wounded.

“I’m not trying to save you, I just want to help.”

“Of course you are.” She retorts. “I know what’s going on here. You told me yourself. You felt guilty for years, and then you had a chance to make up for it, didn’t you? You thought you could rescue me by marrying me and bringing me here. And hey, you even have a “get out of jail free” card, because once I take back my real name I doubt this marriage will be legal. You can walk away with a clear conscience.”

He stares at her. “I’m not here because I’m trying to save you, I love you!”

“You had a stupid crush on me in high school. And then before you got a chance to grow out of it, I disappeared. You just built me up in your mind. Here’s the reality. I’m not that amazing.” He’s fisting his hands in his hair now, and glaring at her. Katniss doesn’t know where these spiteful words are coming from.

“Do not tell me how I feel. You want to know the truth? I know you don’t need saving, you never have. You were doing fine on your own, handling your own problems far better than I ever would have been able to do. You have always, always been the one to save me. And you never even noticed. When I was eleven I came to school with a black eye. I told everyone I was wrestling with my brother, but it was a lie. The other kids made fun of me, and you stepped in, invited me to come to over to your house. You didn’t know what it was like for me at home, but you told me I could come over any time, and you meant it. Do you know how much it mattered to have a safe place where I was always welcome? 

“When I was seventeen, my mother, in one of her power plays, told me that if I didn’t want to go to Yale and then law school, I was going to be cut off. You were the one who looked over my trust fund papers and told me she couldn’t do that. That I could go to any college I wanted and it would be paid for. That she couldn’t prevent me gaining full control when I turned twenty five.

“So you want to know what I was doing when I asked you to marry me? I was trying to hold on to the best thing that has ever happened to me. I don’t care if it’s not legally binding, this marriage is real to me. And I know it’s the wrong time and this is a bad situation, and I’m sorry that I’m that selfish, but one of the reasons I’m happy the baby happened is because now you can never walk away from me. No matter what, this child will link us together forever.”

Katniss doesn’t want to believe him. But it’s Peeta. She didn’t do anything special. She was just nice to a good person. She hadn’t meant to save him.

“Are you going to say something?” Peeta says, after a long silence. What do you say to that?

“You weren’t around my house that much when we were growing up,” she says. Peeta finally smiles.

“Kat, I had my own room. You just weren’t paying attention.” She moves closer, sliding her fingers across his cheekbone, remembering the bruises he used to have. She had thought his older brothers were bullying him, she hadn’t realised it was worse than that.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know. You should have told me. I would done something.” He huffs out a pained sound.

“Have you been listening? You did do something. You let me become a part of your family. I don’t know where I’d be right now if I never met you, but I know it would be bad.” She sighs and leans against him.

“I still feel like I should have known. Why didn’t you report them?”

Peeta gives her a sidelong look. “Haymitch and I talked about it, but it would have been complicated. I wanted him to be my guardian, just like he was for you, but he’s a drunk. My mother would have contested it and caused all sorts of problems. Plus she would have been vengeful if I shamed her publicly. It wasn’t so bad. He had a little talk to her and after that she kept her attacks verbal. And I always had your place when things got to be too much.” It still hurts to think of little Peeta having to endure all that. Why would he want to go back to a place that evoked so much pain?

“You really think you’re going to want to stick want to around after all this is done? Even after you come into your trust and you can go off and live your dream?” She can feel his mouth in her hair. 

“I think I can manage to do that while still being a decent husband and father.” He turns her a little so he can look into her face. “Kat, I know you don’t need me, you can save everyone on your own. I’m just asking you to let me give you the one thing I have to offer. Let me love you.” She looks down at her swelling stomach.

“That’s what got us into this situation.” She says sourly. Peeta laughs at her. At least someone has cheered up.

“Not physically, although that is amazing, and yeah, I don’t want that to stop, ever. But I meant emotionally. I want you to let me in.” Katniss isn’t sure if she can. 

“I’ll try,” is all she can offer.

The nightmares don’t get better after that, but when she lets Peeta comfort her at least she can fall back to sleep afterwards. And she tries to listen when he tells her about the pregnancy and baby books he’s been reading. She draws the line at taking some crazy hypno Lamaze coaching childbirthing class that he’s found, but compromises with prenatal yoga. The other women coo and fuss over Peeta, apparently Katniss is the only one who finds it odd to see a man stretching and twisting alongside all the pregnant women. Katniss is pretty sure that the instructor keeps giving him modifications (because duh, he’s not pregnant) just so she can touch him. 

Delly from next door insists on throwing them a baby shower and Katniss is amazed that three women from work care enough to show up. (She’s not surprised when the rest of the guest list is filled out by people who know Peeta). 

It’s all quite picturesque, except for the looming shadow of Snow. While other pregnant women are counting down the days until their due date, Katniss can only focus on the days till her twenty fourth birthday. The day everyone she loves can be safe. When her child can be safe. She has no room to worry about anything else.

She’s been talking to Haymitch a lot. He at least doesn’t think a honeymoon baby is the “sweetest thing ever.” Telling him she was pregnant, and that the father is Peeta Mellark, her childhood friend, whom she also happens to be married to was stressful. But once he stopped swearing Haymitch has been the calm voice of reason that she needed.

As her due date draws closer Katniss’ fears continue to grow. She keeps her Haymitch contact phone on her every second, and she insists that Peeta carry one too. She buries all their important papers and the few thousand dollars that they have managed to save under a rock in the woods. She makes Peeta park his car two blocks away in case they have to run. Peeta mutters about odd nesting urges but goes along with all of her requests (demands).

Katniss has to reluctantly give up leading hikes at seven months pregnant, but the resort is able to keep her on, assisting on some of the other activities, and she’s determined to keep working right up until the day she goes into labor. If she sits at home she knows she’ll go crazy. Or her paranoia will drive Peeta and Haymitch crazy.

The gift box waiting in front of the door when she arrives home is unexpected, but not unusual. Peeta is beloved by his students and the community in general, so little baby gifts have been left at their door off and on for the last few months. Katniss’ favorites are the ones from the kids, they’re always offering up little pieces of the art Peeta helps them create. After the day she’s had Katniss needs a smile. So she decides to open it now instead of waiting for Peeta. 

Inside, nestled on a bed of wood shavings are two wooden swans. The larger one blonde maple and the smaller one made of something exotic with swirls of light and dark color. Swans representing her new family.

She can’t breathe, her heart is pounding out of her chest. They have to run, she has to get to Peeta, but she can’t move. And then he’s there, and she’s trying to tell him they’ve got to go, but he’s not paying attention.

Katniss wakes up in the hospital. Peeta is sitting calmly beside her, holding her hand. 

“Try to stay calm. You’re okay, you just had a panic attack.” He says before she can speak.

“We have to get out of here, the swans, he found us…” she begins, but Peeta is shaking his head.

“It’s okay. They weren’t from him, didn’t you see the note?” 

A few weeks before Delly had apparently commented on the swans that Katniss had arranged across the mantle. Peeta had told her that they represented Katniss’ family. When she found out that there wasn’t one to represent Peeta she had, of course, asked one of his students to carve one, and one for the baby too. And yes, he had called Delly and double checked. When she looks at the figures more carefully Katniss can see they come from different hands, the shaping is rougher, and the style is different.

“The baby!” she gasps. She is a terrible mother, shouldn’t that have been her first concern? But Peeta is smiling and telling her that the baby is fine, they performed an ultrasound and she’s fine. 

So perhaps Katniss has been over reacting, just a little. 

 

Their daughter is born three weeks later. Her life has been so dramatic, Katniss feels like something as life altering as the birth of her child should have been more, well, dramatic. She is lounging in bed one afternoon, sent home early because she was falling asleep, when the baby makes an abrupt movement. Then she feels the wetness between her thighs. Her water has broken. She calls the doctor, who tells her to rest until contractions start. She naps for an hour or so, and then the pains begin. Mild at first, but by the time Peeta gets home a few hours later they are getting quite strong and close, so they go to the hospital. Eight hours later Katniss is holding her daughter in her arms and admiring her cobalt blue eyes. 

“A textbook birth,” the doctor declares proudly, as if he was the one that had pushed a baby out of his vagina.

“Still feel like this is a mistake?” Peeta whispers. Katniss bursts into tears. Damn hormones. She can’t get her feelings straight. 

Because how can he say this perfect (ugly, red faced and strangely proportioned perfect) baby is a mistake? But she is the perfect weapon to break Katniss.

“We can never let anything bad happen to her,” is all she says, finally. Peeta shakes his head a little as he slips the baby from her arms. “My baby,” Katniss wants to say, and snatch her back. “His baby too,” she has to tell herself.

“Hi sweetheart,” she hears him murmuring. “I’m your daddy. I want you to know you have some pretty tough parents, particularly your mommy, and we are going to fight to keep you safe and happy.” He glances at Katniss, “but we can’t protect you from everything so you need to grow up strong too.”

She feels tears starting well in her eyes again. “Why are you being such a jerk?” she asks, trying to scowl at him. He slides his free arm around her and perches awkwardly on the side of the bed.

“Sorry, sorry. We will keep her safe from Snow, in six months we’ll be back home with the family and he’ll never be able to touch us again. But I want you to focus on the future. We named her Arden, you want her to live up to her name right? To be eager to explore? You’ll teach her about business, I’ll teach her about art. You’ll climb trees with her, I’ll bake cookies. Haymitch is gonna bounce her on his knee and tell her stuff he shouldn’t. She’s going to go on adventures and do exciting things. And we won’t be able to protect her all the time. We shouldn’t try to. I don’t want her future marked by how scared we are right now.”

Peeta has never talked about being scared before. Katniss wonders if he’s just humoring her. The serious look in his eyes says he’s not. She’s put so much onto him over the last few months, and he’s taken it all without complaint. She leans over and kisses him. “You deserve so much better than me.” 

“Katniss, you deserve everything. I just hope that I’m one of the things you still want around when you get your life back.” The use of her real name and the sad look on his face are disturbing. As if he’s already preparing to let her go.

“How could I do better than you?” She knows it’s not exactly wants to hear, but it’s as close as she can manage. 

“These last couple of years, it’s not like I’ve had much competition. I’ve been the only person you could be yourself around.” He shrugs tiredly, as if he’s adjusting a heavy weight that he’s been carrying for a long time. “I know you don’t love me, and I’m not going to try to hold you to this when it’s all over. I’m always going to be in our daughter’s life, but you, you deserve to be with someone you love.” A panicky feeling starts building inside her at the thought of Peeta leaving her. 

“Peeta,” she snaps. “You’ve known me my entire life. Do you really think that I’m going to go back home and fall all over some spoiled trust fund baby who’s never had to struggle for anything in his life? Did I ever give the impression that I was attracted to that before? You’re an idiot if you don’t know that you’ve had more competition in the last two years than you ever had in that world.” She’s rewarded when he smiles a little. When he lays the sleeping baby in the plastic bassinet and climbs up onto the bed to cuddle her, she feels some of the pressure leave her chest. She takes in his nearness with deep, slow, diaphragm breaths, relaxing against him.

“Everyone did think we were a couple you know.” She gives him a confused look. “In school. People thought we were dating.” 

“Why would they think that?” Katniss thinks back to how others acted in high school. The conservative private school they had attended frowned on overt displays of affection, but couples had still gotten away with as much as they could on school property, sneakily holding hands, sitting pressed against each other, stolen kisses. She had certainly not done anything like that with Peeta. At most they had exchanged a hug or two. She hadn’t been thinking about boyfriends back then. Another thought occurs to her. “Who was even paying attention to us anyway?”

“Kat,” it’s a relief to hear him calling her that again, “you have no idea do you? All the guys were paying attention to you. You were so beautiful and so unattainable. Whenever any of them tried to talk to you, you froze them out. But you talked to me. And hell, people knew I slept at your house more than I slept at my own. I think they all thought that we were just a very low PDA couple. And I, uh, I didn’t exactly say anything to counter that.” Something is tickling in the back of her brain. 

“So everyone thought you were my boyfriend,” she says slowly. “Did my family?”

“Oh yeah. Your cousin, Gale? He and I were friends when we were younger, but by the time I was about fifteen he alternated between threatening to beat me up and telling me to take good care of you. I actually tried to explain things to him, but he refused to believe we were just friends. I think your housekeeper knew the truth, but basically everyone else was certain I only pretended to sleep in my own room.”

And then Katniss remembers. The day she came home to the line of swans marching across her bed. How the two pale ones weren’t side by side. The littlest white swan was first, followed by the four black swans in ascending order of size with the larger white swan on the end. Because it wasn’t meant to represent Katniss’ mother. 

She’s been trying to keep Peeta at a distance for so long, convinced that it was the only way to protect him, even after they were married, and then became lovers, she held on to the superstitious idea that as long as she wasn’t “in love” with him he would stay safe. But he’s been on Snow’s hit list all along. 

 

Katniss had thought that nothing could take her mind off her fears, but the first few weeks at home with Arden are like nothing she has endured before. Forget reclaiming her inheritance, Katniss’ new goal in life is to sleep for eight hours straight. Peeta tries to help, but he can’t breastfeed the baby. So she ends up letting him sleep and getting up alone. And then staring at the wall annoyed that Peeta gets to sleep while she’s stuck waking up twice a night to feed his offspring. 

She has too much time to think and not enough time to sleep, and thoughts keep chasing around her head in increasingly warped spirals. She’s cannot bear to leave her daughter with anyone, not even Peeta, but she resents him every day as he goes to work and gets away from the baby. When Arden starts sleeping longer Katniss still wakes up every few hours, she has to check and make sure the baby is still alive, and because her breasts are painfully swollen with milk.

Mothering a newborn is its own special kind of hell, and and as much as Peeta tries, Katniss is trapped in it all alone.

She’s sitting at the table one night, feeding Arden, like she always seems to be doing these days, and glaring resentfully at Peeta as he washes the dishes. He never complains, but it feels like a complaint when he comes home and immediately starts tidying up. She wishes he would say something about the mess, at least then she could have a focus for all this anger. But he persists in being so understanding. Why does he have to be so perfect all the time? To show her what a failure she is by comparison?

She’s relieved when the phone rings and breaks into her angry thoughts. It’s the Haymitch phone, and she’s left it in the other room, but she reluctantly shuffles the baby and goes to get it. She and Haymitch agreed long ago to never ignore a call from the other.

“RUN NOW!” he yells as soon as she answers. “Snow found you, get out, get out!” 

“Peeta,” she says it softly, but he knows. He snatches up his wallet and keys and straps on the baby carrier, stuffing Arden into it as quickly as he can. Katniss grabs the diaper bag and follows him out the window. They’ve practiced this, but not with a baby. Peeta is awkwardly clambering over the sill, trying not to bump Arden, when they hear the knock on the front door. It could be Delly, or it could be someone infinitely worse.

They scramble out and Katniss quietly closes the window behind them. No need to make it obvious. As they slip into the alley behind the house they hear a smash, definitely not Delly at the door. They run, but there is no pursuit, and a few minutes later they are safely inside Peeta’s car.

Katniss reaches for her phone to call Haymitch back and she sees the call is still open.

“Haymitch?”

“I’m here, sweetheart. Are you okay?” Concern and affection is evident in his voice. Sometimes she forgets how difficult this must be for him. She puts the phone on speaker.

“Yeah. But about two minutes after you called someone broke down our front door. We were already in the alley, but it was close.”

“I’m never going to make fun of her paranoid precautions again,” Peeta adds. They hear Haymitch’s heavy sigh of relief.

“Can you get out of town?” Peeta and Katniss exchange a glance. The town is at the end of a valley, with only one road in or out, so Katniss’ escape plan was to hike out, over the mountain to a town on the other side. They’ve hiked the trail several times, but never in the dark and cold, with a baby, and Katniss still recovering from the birth.

“We can do it,” Katniss says grimly. “It may take a bit longer than we planned though. Have the plane waiting first thing in the morning.” 

Hiking through the night is no fun, but they are cautious and the trail is familiar, so it’s not truly dangerous. A few miles in they stop to dig up the box with all their money and papers. Katniss has done this before, run with nothing more than a backpack, but Peeta is very quiet. 

“Are you okay?” she asks him after a while. 

“Just thinking about how it must have been for you. Right now we’re leaving our home, and it’s scary and sad, but I have the two people I love most with me, and I know Haymitch is waiting for us. You were eighteen and you had to face running into the unknown, alone, for six years. How’d you do it?”

Katniss thinks back to that day. How Peeta showing up had made it that much harder. 

“I almost asked you to come with me you know.” She hears his gasp. She can’t see his face very well in the backwash of the flashlights, but she can imagine the look he has. The same startled, awed look he gets anytime she suggests she cares about him. “I would have if I’d known.”

“Known what?” he asks innocently.

It’s the exhaustion, the stress, the loathing she feels for herself when she thinks about what she’s put him through, the fear that this might be the last chance she has, or some combination of that that makes her mouth keep moving when it should stop.

“If I’d known Snow had already targeted you, if I’d known you loved me, if I’d known I loved you.” It takes her a few seconds to notice that the sound of Peeta’s heavy tramping steps has stopped. She turns and sees him standing frozen. “Peeta?”

“You said you love me.” Had she? She doesn’t even know. If the words are out… 

“Is that really such a surprise?”

“Yes!” He rubs his face. “I’m sorry, I’m reading too much into this, you’re exhausted, you probably don’t know what you’re saying right now. I’ll just pretend I never heard that, come on, we’re almost to the highest point, all downhill from there.” He moves to slide past her, and coward that she is, she almost lets him. It’s true she didn’t intend to say that here and now, but the look on his face makes her reach out to him. He looks so sad. How can she keep denying him the truth that he so desperately wants to hear?

“Don’t do that, don’t pretend I didn’t say it. I do love you. In the ‘in love’ kind of way,” she adds when she sees the justification forming on his lips. She hugs him and lays kisses down his neck for emphasis. After a moment his arms come around her, gently, mindful of Arden pressed between them, but with a grip that said he isn’t going to be the first to let go.

“I’m sorry,” she says, ineffectually, “I should have told you sooner. I was scared.” He nuzzles his face into her. 

After a few minutes Katniss realizes that he really isn’t going to let go unless she pushes him away. So she does. 

“Sorry,” she says again. “We need to keep moving. We can talk about this when we’re safe.” He nods tiredly, and they keep going. They really are close to the highest point of the trail, and they make better time on the downhill side, only stopping once to eat, and feed the baby.

They make it to the airport just as the sun is slipping above the horizon. They’re hungry, and sporting some scratches and bruises, and so exhausted that they can barely stand. But they made it.  
Peeta looks around dazedly. “Where’s the plane?” Katniss points to the Cessna warming up at the end of the runway. “NO, no way! I am not getting in that. I’m not taking my daughter in a flying tuna tin.” He continues to babble as Katniss bundles them into the plane and gets them strapped in. He’s asleep within seconds, and they are in the air a few minutes later.

Haymitch is waiting for them when they change to a larger plane at the regional airport.

“I hope you’re happy with yourself boy,” is the first thing he says. Katniss scowls at him.

“Really? No hugs, or I missed you, or let me meet my honorary granddaughter? You go straight to attacking Peeta?” Haymitch rolls his eyes. 

“I thought the first thing you’d want to know is how Snow found you.” Katniss’ eyes round and she turns to stare at her husband. 

“What did you do?” For a moment she wonders if he betrayed her. But he looks confused. 

“I have no idea.” They both look to Haymitch, who turns his laptop screen toward them. It’s open to facebook, an update from, of all people, Peeta’s mother. It’s a picture of Katniss holding Arden. She has captioned it with gushy comments about finally getting a girl to fuss over. As if that crazy abusive bitch will be allowed within a mile of their child. 

Peeta puts his head in his hands. “I sent that picture to my brother, he swore he wouldn’t show anyone.” Katniss looks more closely.

“I don’t understand how this exposed us anyway. You can’t even see my face.” 

Peeta nods emphatically. “I chose that one because of that.” 

Haymitch grimaces. “Read the comments.” Katniss’ eyes skim down. Her eye is caught by a comment from his brother, not the nice one who Peeta keeps in contact with. The jerky oldest.  
“Look at that hair. Does this girl know she’s a Katniss Everdeen replacement?” she reads out. She looks back at the picture. Even though her head is cut off, her dark braid is clearly visible, laying across her shoulder.

“Oh no.” Peeta is leaning back in his seat, his hands in his hair. 

“Oh no indeed. Add that to the fact that you couldn’t even bother to remove the geotag from the photo before you sent it, and you may as well have sent Snow an engraved invitation.” Peeta looks devastated. 

“Kat, I’m so sorry. I didn’t even think, and I almost got us all killed, or kidnapped, or whatever other horrible thing he had in store for us. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to tell Tom about Arden, it just slipped out, and then he badgered me for a picture, and I was so tired. I sent him the first one I found on my phone that didn’t show your face. I didn’t think, I’m such a failure, I…” Katniss cuts him off with a kiss. 

“It’s okay. You made one mistake, and we’re fine.” She turns to Haymitch. “So his family outed us. Where do we go from here? How do we hide for the next three months?” Haymitch grimaces.

“I don’t think you can hide anymore. He knows too much about you now. And he is very aware that he only has three months left to shut you up.”

Katniss feels helpless. She looks over at her daughter, sleeping peacefully in the car seat Haymitch had so thoughtfully provided. At Peeta, who still seems to be trying to rip out his hair. They are relying on her to keep them safe. She has nothing left, nowhere left to run. 

“Hey, hey, we’re not done yet.” Haymitch leans over and puts his arm around her. “I have a few more tricks up my sleeve, but I want you two to get some sleep first.” Haymitch will take care of things. She can trust that. She and Peeta recline their seats and close their eyes. Wait. There’s something off about Haymitch. She pops her head up to look at him. He eyes her back. He smells wrong. 

“Haymitch” she gasps. “Did you quit drinking?” It’s almost unbelievable to hug him and not smell stale whiskey. He glares at her.

“Most people’s kids drive them to drink. You two pushed me all the way out the other side. Happy?” She grins sleepily and lays back down.

“Yes.” One of the biggest fears of her childhood, after she lost her father, was that Haymitch would kill himself with his drinking. To think he sobered up for them, it’s amazing. Despite all the terrifying events of the last two days, Katniss falls asleep with a lightness in her heart.

 

“An FBI agent? If it was as simple as going to the FBI, then why didn’t we do that years ago?” Katniss demands. She and Peeta are feeling much better after sleeping for almost twenty four hours. Katniss did have to wake up every few hours to feed the baby, but Haymitch has taken care of everything else, so she’s feeling surprisingly well rested. Peeta looks like a new man.

They’re now downing take out in an anonymous hotel room while Haymitch outlines his new plan. So far Katniss isn’t impressed. It mostly involves calling this FBI agent he knows and letting him deal with things. Not exactly what Katniss had in mind.

“I didn’t go to them before because Snow has influence everywhere. I had to be able to trust, not only the agent I’m dealing with, but his superior, and everyone he works with, and it was a very delicate process. Okay?” Haymitch is already getting irritated. He and Katniss glare at each other. 

Peeta, ever the peacemaker, suggests they meet with the guy and go from there. He seems to change his mind when Special Agent Finnick Odair walks in and kisses Katniss’ hand. 

Agent ‘Please call me Finn’ is a flirt, but he seems to know what he’s talking about. Unfortunately, the options he presents aren’t as attractive as his face. He explains that Haymitch has gathered enough information to convict Snow on the embezzlement, but it’s a white collar crime. He’ll be free within a few years. Katniss shudders at the idea of Snow free and vengeful. 

“What about Seneca Crane?” Peeta asks. “He murdered him. Surely that means more than a couple of years in prison.” Finn shakes his head regretfully.

“As much as I would like to get him on that one, the only thing we can prove is the embezzlement. Unless we catch him involved with something else.” His eyes drift over to Katniss. At first she thinks he’s checking her out. Which is odd. Her three months postpartum body is not check outable. Even Peeta, with his giant blind spot for all her faults doesn’t oggle her the way he used to.

“No,” Peeta says, “don’t even ask. We have a three month old daughter. Please.” Haymitch makes a noise that is almost a growl. Katniss glances between the three men, confused.

“You asked me to present the facts Haymitch. I am. Perhaps the two of you should let Katniss make her own choices.”

Katniss is getting tired of this. “What choices,” she demands. Finn looks at her, his eyes apologetic.

“We would need you to act as bait.” 

 

The trickiest thing about letting Snow catch her is making it look real. They eventually decide to use Peeta’s hapless brother. He’s a good person, but he doesn’t have Peeta’s strength, his mother rolls right over him. All they have to do is ask him to meet them at a secluded location and let Mrs Mellark (ugh, Katniss will never like sharing a title with that woman) spill the details to all her friends. 

Haymitch argues with Finn over different listening and recording devices that they want to hang all over her, and Peeta insists that the baby have some sort of tracking device attached to her, just in case. She won’t be at the location, but he worries. Katniss wants them to all shut up and let her think. 

She doesn’t want to do this. She can admit that. Snow has been the bogeyman made real for so long, and she hasn’t been face to face with him since that one dramatic meeting when she was eighteen. The thought of being under his control, no matter how short the time period, no matter how many FBI agents are waiting outside, is terrifying. 

If she backs out now she knows Peeta will support it. He’s been begging her not to do this. Even Haymitch, who is usually so pragmatic would back her up. But she can’t. She must do this, otherwise her daughter, her husband, her sister and cousins, who she hasn’t seen for almost six years, none of them will ever be safe. 

She looks into those pleading eyes, the big blue pools that he only uses when he’s desperate. That look she can never say no to. And she turns away. She loves him too much to do anything else. 

 

Five years, eight months and three days of running and hiding, and living in roach infested apartments, and working horrible jobs, and worrying every minute about the safety of the people she loves and it happens anyway. Snow still wins. Katniss would cry if she wasn’t petrified. As in so scared she can’t even move.

She should have known better than to try to fool him. He saw straight through the trap that the FBI had set for him. She had been in the hotel room, cuddled with Peeta trying to catch a few hours sleep before the big event when she heard an odd noise. When she opened the door to the outer room she was met by armed, masked men. Special Agent Finnick Odair, the flirty charming man who just hours before had been showing them pictures of his own young son, the man who had told them he’d be with them every step of the way, he was on the floor, in a widening puddle of his own blood. Another agent that Katniss had never even met was draped across the couch with a hole where his eye should have been. 

And now she’s tied to a chair while she watches Snow pour tea, and hold Arden in his arms. Peeta is slumped unconscious in the armchair across the room. Snow tells her that he had been difficult. As if it was a surprise that Peeta would resist the abduction of his wife and daughter.

“I always thought you were a smart girl, Miss Everdeen. I was disappointed when I discovered that I was mistaken.” It’s wrong that his voice is so deep and pleasant. Like a voiceover from a TV commercial. The recording devices! She remembers them being on her and Peeta, could the FBI be listening? 

“Why did you bring me here to your house? Are you going to murder me, like you murdered Mr. Crane?” she asks, hoping that the wires are working and getting this.

Snow looks at her sadly.

“Miss Everdeen, do you think I’m so foolish?” He slides open a drawer and takes out the gold pin that had been pinned to her blouse. The bird’s head, that once held a camera, is crushed. He exhibits the other devices with a smug expression. With a sinking heart Katniss realizes that he got them all.

“What do you want?” she asks dully.

“What I’ve always wanted. The money that is rightfully mine. Did you really think that a childish upstart like you could take control of one of the largest fortunes in the world?” He’s in her face now.  
“I’m the one who took care of it, made it grow, not you or your snivelling sister. Me!” And she sees the madness in his eyes. He’s holding Arden too tightly and she’s starting to fuss. Don’t cry, don’t cry Katniss chants silently. She doesn’t know what he’ll do if he has to deal with a crying baby. She doesn’t want to know.

“Are you going to kill us?” she asks. He smiles beatifically.

“I’m not a savage, Miss Everdeen. I merely need you to sign some papers and then you will be free to go.” But his eyes twinkle alarmingly.

“And what if I don’t?” She should keep her mouth shut and sign. But no. He shakes his head at her. 

“You wouldn’t want your precious baby girl to suffer an accident would you? Like poor Mr. Crane? I’m very good at arranging accidents.”

Katniss tries frantically to think, but he has all the power. She can do nothing but concede to his demands. He picks up a knife, and for a heart stopping moment she thinks he’s going to cut the child to make his point, but he merely severs the rope restraining her and slides a pen and papers in front of her. 

She signs. Paper after paper, she signs her entire fortune away. After all these years of living on the other side, poverty doesn’t scare her. The man holding her child does. She doesn’t believe for a moment that he’s going to let them walk away. 

She’s been aware of Peeta moving around for a while, and when she risks a quick glance over her shoulder she sees his eyes are open and watching her. 

Snow notices the same thing. “Mr. Mellark, I’m glad to see you awake. Could you hold this for a moment?” This. Their daughter is an inanimate object to him. Peeta takes her eagerly. “Miss Everdeen, if you have finished?” Katniss nods. “Then you may leave, as promised. Do have a nice life.” She looks at him in confusion. Is he really going to let them walk away?

She gets her answer on the other side of the door. He wasn’t exactly lying. They did walk away. He just didn’t mention the men he has waiting for them in the next room. A gun is pointed at her baby’s head. Peeta is trying to shield them with his body but they are both grabbed and dragged out. Katniss thinks too late that she should have done something while they were still inside. Surely Snow wouldn’t have wanted them killed inside his house? The blood stains would be too messy.

They are being forced into a car when the space around them explodes into action. For a moment she doesn’t know what is happening, but then she understands. The FBI has finally arrived.  
It’s all over quite quickly. Within a few minutes Katniss is safely in Haymitch’s arms and paramedics are checking Peeta and Arden. She expects Haymitch to make fun of her blubbering, but he holds her as tightly as she holds him. 

She’s confused about how they were found, until Peeta reminds her that Snow did miss a device. The one he had insisted on for the baby.

The rest of the day goes by in a blur. Katniss is interviewed by so many people and repeats her story so many times that finally Haymitch calls a halt to it all, telling the FBI that they if they need to know more, tomorrow will be just as good as tonight. All Katniss cares about is that Snow is never going to be able to harm her or her loved ones again.

Katniss is nervous about seeing her family, she left them without a word, will they ever be able to forgive her for the pain she must have put them through? But Haymitch has smoothed the way here too. When she steps through the door she is embraced without hesitation, they fuss around over her and the baby. She even sees her mother hugging Haymitch and tearfully thanking him for bringing her babies home safe. 

When she’s pulled down onto a couch in the family room and surrounded by all of her rowdy family members, she feels uncomfortable. After spending years trying to blend into the background it feels wrong to have so many people focused on her. She instinctively reaches for Peeta but he’s not there. She’s starting to feel panicked when she spots him hovering by the door. What is he doing all the way over there?

“Peeta can tell the story far better than I can,” she finds herself saying, and his head snaps around to look at her. She reaches out a hand, and slowly he comes over and sits beside her, leaving a wide space between them. 

“Are you sure you don’t want to be alone with your family?” he asks softly, clenching and unclenching his hands in his lap. Katniss slides closer to him and slips her hand into his. 

“Of course, that’s why we’re here,” she says. And then she realizes what must be bothering him. “Did you want to go to see your family? We can cut this short and go over there soon if you want.” It’s a little odd to think of him anxious to see the family that he is basically estranged from, but if it’s important to him she’s happy to go along with it. As long as it doesn’t involve letting him or Arden out of her sight.

One of his incredibly sweet Peeta smiles spreads across his face, and he squeezes her hand. 

“The only one I have any interest in seeing is my brother, so if I could call him and have him come over here? He’s excited to meet his niece…” So excited he couldn’t keep her picture to himself, Katniss adds silently. But it all worked out. She can’t stay mad at the only relative Peeta wants in his life. 

“You know you don’t have to ask,” Katniss’ mother cuts in. “This is your home too.” Peeta looks at her, open mouthed and wide eyed. He gets up and hurries from the room, mumbling about calling where it’s quiet. Katniss hopes he doesn’t take too long, she doesn’t like the feeling she gets when she can’t see or touch him.

“Are you guys really married?” Prim asks. Katniss can practically see the hearts in her eyes. She might be in college now (Katniss has missed so much), but she’s still as soft hearted as ever. Katniss glances at Haymitch. She’s not sure if her marriage is legal or not.

Haymitch gives her a nod. “I looked into it like you asked. Turns out the government considers a marriage binding, even if you did use an alias on the marriage licence.” That’s good to hear. One less detail to sort out.

Peeta’s quiet when he sits back down beside her, and when his brother shows up they withdraw to the other side of the room and sit talking softly together. Katniss misses his steady presence beside her, but how can she begrudge him some time with his brother? 

She follows him upstairs later with a desperate desire to be away from the suffocating love of her family and alone with him. They mean well but it’s been Katniss and Peeta against the world for two years now, she can’t adjust to more people so quickly. She’s confused when he turns away from her and goes down the hall.

“Where are you going?” she asks.

“My room.” Well, okay, she supposes it doesn’t matter much. Katniss shrugs and follows him. He stares at her as she makes a nest of pillows on the bed so she can feed the baby. He turns away and fiddles with papers stacked on the desk.

When the baby is fed and settled, Katniss gets herself ready for bed and slides between the sheets, and notices that Peeta is still sitting at the desk. 

“Aren’t you coming to bed?” She asks sleepily. She hopes this isn’t going to be one of those nights where he’s driven to paint his demons away, although it wouldn’t be surprising. But without him to hold her, she won’t be able to sleep. Although Finnick Odair has miraculously survived, she will never be able to forget the agent with the hole in his head. The man whose name she didn’t even know, who died trying to protect them. That’s going to be competing with the image of her daughter with a gun to her head in her nightmares tonight. 

“You don’t have to sleep here.” Peeta says softly, still focused on the papers. Wasn’t it his idea to come in here? She’s not switching rooms now.

“Peeta I’m tired. I know this was a horrible day, but can’t we talk this through tomorrow?” He sighs and nods. But when he gets in beside her he doesn’t reach for her, he stays firmly on his own side of the bed. 

“Okay, fine. Lets talk now.” He’s silent for a long time, but Katniss is good at waiting him out. 

“I heard what Haymitch said,” he says finally. “About how you asked him to find out if we’re really married.” She doesn’t understand why that is making him withdraw from her.

“Prim was disappointed. She wanted a chance to throw a big wedding. I told her she will have to settle for a second anniversary party instead. Does that bother you? If it’s a big deal I can shut her down, but they missed so much, I didn’t want to say no.”

“You want to have an anniversary party?” he asks, and his voice quavers a little. 

“No. But we have to give them something, they missed so much of our lives.” And then he’s got his arms around her, and she feels safe. Snow is gone, her daughter sleeps an arms length away and Peeta is holding her.

“I love you,” she whispers against his skin. 

“Do you mean it? Is this real? You want to stay with me?” He still sounds so insecure. Katniss knows it’s her fault. She is going to make sure he never needs to doubt her again.

“Peeta, don’t you get it yet? You’re my best friend, my lover, the only boy or man I’ve ever been in love with, the father of my child. There’s one word to describe what all that is to me, and it’s husband. I can’t imagine my future without you.” He sighs and cuddles her closer. She can feel the smile on his face.

“Let’s live happily ever after together.”

**Author's Note:**

> I know this is an unfamiliar fairy tale, but if you made it this far that mustn't have put you off! I hope I did both the brothers Grimm and Peeta and Katniss justice here.
> 
> Many thanks to DeepInTheMeadow for being so patient with my neurotic behaviour, and to KatnissDoesNotFollowBack who corrected all my tenses and gave me an ego boost. 
> 
> Also thanks to ILoveWicked over on fanfiction, who graciously let me use her everlark baby name, as I couldn't come up with anything nearly as good. 
> 
> Let me know if this all worked for you.


End file.
